(Updated at 8:17 p.m. with reaction from Normandy and its interim superintendent)

In unusually strong language, a St. Louis County judge has ruled that Normandy schools are unaccredited and students who live in the district have a right to transfer to whatever area accredited school district they want to attend.

The Kansas City school district has released a school-improvement plan that was developed with a local coalition.

The plan's submission Tuesday to the State Board of Education comes one day after a consultant released a competing proposal. The consultant's plan calls for a state-run entity to recruit community groups and educators to operate schools in failing districts.

Unlike that proposal, the new plan calls for the unaccredited Kansas City districts to be designated as provisionally accredited. That would stop students from taking advantage of a state law to transfer to accredited schools. Instead, schools would be accredited individually.

North St. Louis County's Normandy School District pointed to a variety of things to entice parents to keep their kids in the district: partnerships and collaboration with nearby universities, new technology, and more staff training.

But for the parents of 1,151 Normandy kids, it just wasn’t enough. If you compare it to last year’s enrollment, that means 28 percent will be fleeing the failing school district.

Unaccredited schools in Kansas City and St. Louis could have a huge impact on a number of school districts in each of those metropolitan areas. Plus, teacher tenure could see changes – and we’ll give you the results of the Columbia school board races we previewed the last couple of weeks.